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Programme
- Mozart - The Marriage of Figaro Overture
- Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto
- Strauss - Salome: Dance of the Seven Veils
- Bartók - The Miraculous Mandarin Suite
In Beaumarchais’ play The Marriage of Figaro, the lower orders outwit their lecherous, decadent master.
So the play was banned – but in the greatest loophole in music history, Mozart’s opera on it was approved.
Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, now one of his most popular works, was attacked in the newspapers as “music that stinks to the ear”. Strauss appalled polite society with his cheerfully blasphemous opera Salome, while Bartók’s acidic ballet The Miraculous Mandarin was instantly banned upon its première. It is music of the hard city – and of frank, shocking violence and desire.
